Her Favourite Gemstone
by DoctorWhodunit
Summary: Kousaka Honoka is new to this city, after visiting a tiny bit of this story, she meets a woman that will probably never leave her mind again. AU where Honoka is a florist and Maki is a librarian! Maki is OOC and there's a reason for it that. Please Read an Review! :) (the third genre is angst, but that will come in the later chapters)
1. Chapter 1

"Thank you, have a nice day!"

"Thank you very much, you too. I'll be sure to come back every once in a while!"

Right after the last client before lunch break left the flower shop, Honoka Kousaka started to sort the money in the cash desk. Today happened to be an astonishingly busy day, flourishing you might say, so she didn't have the time to arrange the coins and bills the way she wanted to.

Honoka untied the knots on both sides of her body to free herself from her old-fashionned double sided apron and set it on the flower-patterned hook behind her little cash desk. She noticed that this definitely-way-too-large apron had the tendency of hiding the clothes she was wearing, she used it at her advantage to be able to wear quite informal clothes for an owner of a flower shop, especially during sunny days like this one. She was clothed in a short sleeved plain black crop top, exposing her skin from a bit above her belly button to her waist, revealing the bottom of a seemingly decent six pack. Her lower body was shyly covered by fashionable ripped jean shorts masking barely half of her thighs, thus displaying a nicely shaped pair of legs.

With a satisfied smile, the florist opened the door to the small room where her belongings were kept. She grabbed her purse, made sure her wallet was in it, checked if there actually was money in said wallet, and went out of the small room without forgetting to lock the door. She checked on some of the bouquets, even sniffed a few of them on the way. Before heading out, Honoka stood on tiptoe to reach a sign on the highest shelf behind the cash desk. She hung it to the glass door thanks to the chain attached to the sign, people outside passing by often smiled at it.

 **CLOSED (you can still admire the flowers though, it's also what they're for)**

All set, she stepped outside. The sun was clearly there, it was hard to miss this giant fireball above her head and she loved it, and she was right when picking her clothes this morning. The sunlight ravished her skin and made her hair look even brighter.

"Visit time!" she blurted, before blushing in embarassment when she realized she said that out loud, causing some people to look at her whether amused or weirded out.

Honoka was new to this city, she opened her flower shop a few weeks ago. Since then, she has been rather busy with taking care of all the paper work related to the ownership of the flower shop, ordering furnitures for her new flat, decorating her room and the rest of the flat (even though her room was her priority), so she hasn't really had the time to actually visit the city. Today, she decided to sacrifice her lunch break to stroll around, to try and discover the nice spots, the coffee shops, the public garden(s), or even the shrines. She barely had an hour to spare, not enough to be able to visit it all, so she opted for some of the streets around her shop.

After a few minutes of walking and looking around, a signboard caught Honoka's eyes' attention, she found the name of this little bookshop – considering the display of some books at the window – rather well-thought-out, yet ironic, odd even.

 **The Muses' Inspiration**.

Honoka wasn't fond of bookshops, or books in general if she was honest with herself, but she still absent-mindedly crossed the street and went for it. _I'm in a new city, let's do something new!_

She opened the door, and as the bell above it rang, she had the privilege to be welcomed by one of the most beautiful girls she has ever had the opportunity to meet.

"Welcome!" the woman behind the counter exclaimed, looking delighted with a genuine smile on her face.

She was stunned. Sure, it didn't take much for her to marvel over something, but it wasn't exactly the same with people, especially if those people happened to just be one person who had said only one word to her.

"H-hello," she stuttered, unable to look away for a few seconds. She almost looked ginger, but her hair was red, a rather deep shade of red, blood red... crimson. If she had to compare it to a gemstone – because let's be honest she had already reached gemstone level at this point – she would say that her hair is the result of a perfect slicing of ruby, her hair was made of millions of sliced pieces of ruby.

"Hum, I'm pretty new to this city and I noticed your shop so I thought I'd check it out," she said, giving her an awkward smile as she scratched the back of her head in an attempt to make it look like she kept her cool. It failed. She just looked like an awkward girl scratching the back of her head, but the ruby-haired woman didn't pay attention to that.

"Oh, welcome again then, to this city this time," she replied, suddenly overjoyed at the idea of having a newcomer in her shop.

Honoka noticed her beaming eyes as she said that, she couldn't not notice such a rare pair of eyes, they were purple, but Honoka preferred to use the word "violet" due to her profession. Somehow, the colour of her eyes seemed to complement the colour of her hair. _Amethyst,_ she thought, her eyes were shining amethysts, she had never seen anything like it before.

"Feel free to take a look at some of the books here," she suggested, "there's almost every genre".

"Oh, hum, yeah, of course," she answered, nodding more than twice, more than needed.

She managed to snap out of her inner trance and looked away, and it was the first time since she entered the bookshop that she even glanced at the books, her attention earlier being entirely focused on a fusion of sparkling gemstones.

This bookshop indeed had a lot of genres, from mystery to romance, sci-fi to fantasy, even horror; this last one made Honoka cringe. She wandered around the different aisles and let herself distracted by the sheer amount of shelves this little shop contained, it looked as if it was bigger on the inside. She spotted a golden covered book at the bottom of a shelf in the romance section and squatted down to take a look at it, she didn't really have any interest in the content of this book but the shiny cover appealed to her. She looked serious, eyes skimming through the very details of the cover of this book, her thumb under her chin and the side of her forefinger on her lips.

 _She's hot._

This was what her mind was filled with, this was why she looked so serious and deep in thought, she could not stop thinking about her new favourite gemstone. _She's so hot,_ she thought to herself, even though she only looked – well... stared – at her face, she couldn't shake her out of her mind. She has never been that attracted to someone she just met, and given the fact that only her face was enough to trigger the hottie alarm in her brain, it really testified as to how captivating she was.

"Did you find anything to your liking?"

Honoka's heart skipped a beat, it wasn't her question that startled her but the fact that she was so close behind her she could smell it. She could not pinpoint what she smelled like, apparently her sense of smell (and maybe some of her other senses, like the common one) was totally off, but she knew she smelled good. Though surprised, she didn't even falter, which would have been understandable considering her squatting position. She slowly turned her head around and looked up only to be awed by the heavenly sight that stood before her. Obviously, the mix between the sudden failure of some of her senses and her natural habit of blowing things out of proportion generously embellished the vision she had of her, but she was still objectively beautiful nonetheless. If Honoka's clothes were informal for a flower shop owner, the ruby-haired woman's were unusual for anyone. A yukata. She was wearing a yukata, in a city, in a bookshop, at lunch break. The main colour of this apparel was red, a red that gradually got deeper from top to bottom – it matched with her hair. The patterns on it were mostly flowers with different colours, most of them were bright, like orange, yellow, violet and even pink. A pattern in particular was fitting considering the season, spring, the cherry blossoms, a typically Japanese way of evoking springtime.

 _Eh? What was the question again?_

Realizing that she may have gone silent for an enough amount of seconds to make the situation slightly awkward, Honoka quickly stood up and faced her.

"Hum, sorry, what did you say?" she asked embarrassed, and feeling a bit dizzy because of the lack of enough blood pressure in her brain due to her being in a squatting position for quite sometime.

"Did you find anything to your liking?" she repeated gently.

"Oh, hum, no, I don't intend on buying anything," she answered, "not right now at least!" she added hastily. "I'm kinda short on money, with all the spendings for the furnitures of my new flat, I won't allow myself to buy things for leisure for a while," she explained.

"Oh, I see, no worries," she responded, with an understanding a lopsided smile.

The simple fact that she was not disappointed relieved her, Honoka didn't want to disappoint her because she might have stopped smiling, and this was something she didn't want to witness, not at this moment. She suddenly looked around the bookshop and noticed something.

"Ne, it's kinda weird, isn't it? Why isn't there anyone?" she asked, curious.

"My customers know when I'm on lunch break, and this bookshop also has a website that displays the opening and closing schedule."

"Lun-" she cut herself off, realizing that she totally forgot why she was outside instead of eating lunch in her shop as she usually did. "Aaaah lunch break, I was supposed to stroll around and discover some nice spots," she complained, becoming aware of her airheadedness. _It's not really my fault this time though, the distraction was way too strong,_ she wanted to add, but she preferred to keep it for herself.

Before the librarian could even try to answer to that, a third party interrupted their moment, a third party that apparently needed to be heard more than anyone at this moment.

"Was that..." the crimson-haired woman whispered in disbelief. Seeing Honoka's flushed face with shocked wide eyes confirmed it, the third party was indeed her stomach growling, crying out for help. The librarian couldn't help it, she coudn't stop herself from laughing, she laughed so hard. Maybe too hard. She even crossed her arms on her belly and bent over because of how much fun the situation apparently looked to her. Somehow, it eased off the tension Honoka made up for herself, and she started laughing along with her. It was funny, there was no denying it. After half a minute, Honoka and the librarian regained their composure, more or less.

"Sigh, sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have laughed that much," she panted, wiping a tear off her eye.

"Ah, it's okay, it was fun," Honoka admitted. "I didn't have time to eat breakfast and I haven't eaten lunch because I wanted to stroll around the city, I guess my stomach doesn't want to be a victim of my life decisions," she joked. She glanced at the clock stuck to the wall behind the cash desk, "Aaaand I don't have time to buy anything to eat because I have to go to work."

At those words, the librarian's eyes widened, and before Honoka could even say anything, she ran off to her cash desk and opened a drawer. When she turned around to go back to Honoka, she was already right in front of her, her curiosity had been teased too much. A smile naturally drew itself on the fact of the ruby-haired woman.

"Here, my bento, you can have it," she said, handing the box to a flustered Honoka.

"Hum, uh, it's really kind of you but-"

"No "but"s, you're hungry, you need to eat," she almost scolded. "Besides, it's my fault if you didn't have time to do what you wanted to do, if I had closed the bookshop you wouldn't have entered it," she admitted. "And also, don't worry, I have another bento in my purse," she added, giving her a smirk followed by a friendly wink.

"Oh, then, I... I- I guess I'll take it," she stuttered, "thank you very much!" she exclaimed, taking the bento box and proceeding to execute the traditional Japanese bow.

"You don't need to do that much, it's my pleasure," she reassured.

As she made her way to the entrance, accompanied by the librarian behind her, Honoka thought about something right away, a simple idea so that she could be able to see her again without it being weird. She needed to sound confident.

"I owe you now," she started, "I can't let you give me your bento without me giving something else in return," she said, as she emitted a breathy laugh through her smirk. "I own a flower shop not so far away from here, you could come by someday, I can even give you free flowers. How does that sound?"

"Oh, a flower shop, I should have guessed," she whispered, with a lopsided smile. "That sounds like a great idea!" she exclaimed, "I'll definitely come by when I have time."

After giving her the address of the flower shop, even though a "step out of your bookshop, first to the right and second to the left" would have been enough, Honoka glanced again at the clock on the wall and decided that she should head out if she didn't want to be late. Before stepping outside, Honoka turned around one last time.

"By the way, my name is Kousaka Honoka, but you can call me Honoka," she said, lightly tilting her head, with a wider smile on her face

"Honoka... suits you," she whispered. "My name is Nishikino Maki, you can call me Maki," she said, mirroring her smile.

"Maki, I'll definitely remember it!" she exclaimed, waving her hand, "Ja ne!"

Stepping out of the bookshop, Honoka walked confidently on the sidewalk, heading back to her flower shop. She had done it, she managed to have her favourite gemstone come back to her in the near future.

"The seed is now planted," she said. Obviously, she realized only after she said it that she said that out loud, gifting her yet again with a weird look from someone passing by. She facepalmed. _Stupid flower nerd._

* * *

 **A/N: My first fanfic AU, I'm so excited to see what you guys think of this! Also, I don't really know what I'm going to do with this, if I'm going to continue the story chronologically with an actual plot, if I'm going to make this a loose series of drabbles and short stories set in the same AU and therefore have the possibility to add some more characters, if I'm just going to leave it at that, I don't know. If you have any suggestions as to what I should do, or if you have fun prompts to suggest, just let me know in your reviews! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Two days had passed since the new florist met the librarian working at The Muses' Inspiration. No matter how cliché it sounded and no matter how frustrated she was with herself for being such a walking stereotype, Honoka couldn't stop thinking about her gemstone. From the first word she spoke to the last second spent in this bookshop – and even after that because she couldn't keep herself from glancing at her from the corner of her eye as she left - their encounter was ever present in her mind. She still didn't know how to process those feelings, she was so attracted to her, it was a first for her. Honoka always had doubts about her sexuality, sure, she knew she could appreciate the female body, but she never considered doing anything with a girl – except this one time where she had to kiss a girl friend during a truth or dare in middle school. _It was fun._

Despite those thoughts, Honoka still managed to work efficiently in her shop, and the fact that her customers were all so nice to her helped a lot. One of them was so nice that he even hit on her, but Honoka couldn't have been less receptive.

The two days after their encounter were, as Honoka liked to call them, "chill days". No rush, she had time to sort the coins and bills in her little cash desk, she could even have some casual conversations with her customers without worrying about people impatiently waiting behind said customer. She enjoyed these moments, striking conversations with strangers was her forte, for she always was social and outgoing and had a tremendous confidence in herself. She knew all of that, she was well-aware of it, which is why she couldn't for the life of her figure out what exactly in Maki made her feel so... not in control.

During those "chill days", Honoka had taken the habit of starting her lunch break five minutes after the actual lunch break time, there was no urgency and she wasn't necessarily tired, so she could wait five or even ten minutes just in case another client was to show up. This day, after ten minutes had passed, she went to the small room where her lunch was, which simply consisted of a chicken sandwich, water, and orange juice. Her flower shop had chill days but _she_ had chill _weeks_ , she could go through a whole week with only sandwiches and drinks, sometimes she just didn't want to bother with cooking, except when it was for someone who is important to her.

As Honoka was about to sit down and enjoy her meal, she heard the distinctive sound of a knock on her glass door. Three knocks to be exact. She thought customers would know that it was lunch time and she wasn't expecting anyone so that surprised her, and the word "surprised" wasn't even close to describe how she felt when she laid her eyes on Maki behind the glass door. It wasn't as obvious as her stiff shoulders as she made her way to the door to welcome the ruby-haired woman, but Honoka froze a second and a half. In this short amount of time, she thought about why she decided to come during her lunch break, how she could be able to handle her presence, and why she was frozen for a second and a half in front of the glass door with Maki's blinking eyes behind it. Honoka internally shook her head and hurried herself to open the unlocked door.

"Hi, welcome to my shop," she beamed, suddenly forgetting about the shock she had earlier.

"Ah, it was open," she muttered, following the opening door from the corner of her eye. "Hi, Honoka!" She beamed back, refocusing her attention on the owner of this flower shop.

"Come on in," she said, sliding to the side of the door so Maki could cross the threshold of the shop, "make yourself at home."

"Thank you," Maki said as she walked in, with a lopsided smile lighting up her face as she looked around the shop with bemused sparkling eyes, visibly marvelled by the amount of beautiful flowers this shop had.

"At first glance, I'm assuming you like my shop?" Honoka rhetorically asked, with a tint of smug in her innocent smile.

"I love it, no wonder why you said "make yourself at home", it really feels like home," she sighed in delight. Her eyes got wider as she took a deep breath through her nose, whirling her hands towards it. "It even smells like home!" She exhaled. "No, I take that back, it doesn't smell _like_ home... it smells home. Period."

Watching Maki unravel her train of thoughts was entertaining, her facial expressions and overall gesture were priceless. She seemed carefree, and Honoka loved it. _Hot, intelligent and fun, she's really making it hard for me here._

"I like your way of thinking, I like it a lot," she said, slightly tilting her head to the right, offering her a smile of approval. "Oh!" She blurted out of the blue, "you must be hungry, it's lunch break after all! We can go in the room at the back and eat together," she suggested, pointing at the room behind her with her thumb behind her shoulder.

"Oh, don't worry about me, you can eat all you want, I didn't bring anything to eat anyway," she said, with her ever so present smile.

"No problem, I got you covered." Honoka quickly excused herself and trotted to the room. She felt more confident than before, more like herself and not this walking, talking, overthinking ball of stress. It was probably thanks to Maki's easygoing personality, even though she was still impressed by how beautiful she was, she managed to handle it. She looked through her purse and took out a bento box. She cooked everything herself, even though she had her chicken sandwich, she brought a bento just in case Maki came and didn't have anything to eat, just like herself when they met.

She trotted back out and stretched her arms out to Maki with the bento box in her hands. "Here you go."

Maki seemed irrationally moved by her act of generosity, she had her hand on her mouth and her eyes were opened wide. "You shouldn't-"

"have done that?" She finished. "Of course I had to, you did the same for me last time, it's called a payback," she said, giving her a friendly wink.

Maki bit her lip, she hadn't expected that. As for Honoka, she wondered if she bit her lip because she was hesitating or because of the wink she sent. The thought of it being the second guess drove her crazy, but she managed to keep her cool.

"Okay, I'll take it. Thank you very much, Honoka," she said, grateful. She took the the bento box from Honoka's hands with care, as if something sacred was being touched.

"Alright, let's go eat in the room then," Honoka said, all joyful because Maki accepted her bento box. She had put a lot of work into it after all, it would have been disappointing if she decided not to take it.

"Hum, a-actually," she started, hesitating, "could we eat here? On the floor?" She asked, not really making any eye contact because of how embarrassed she was.

"Eh?"

"Yeah, when you opened the door I saw that there weren't any flowers in that room, so I thought it would be nice to eat here, surrounded by flowers," she suggested, as her complexion turned even redder.

"Oh, sure, no problem, I'm just gonna take my sandwich that's in the mini fridge, I'll be right back."

Honoka went in the room again grabbed her triangle-shaped sandwich. As she was coming back, she wondered if there was a romantic innuendo in what she said, "surrounded by flowers"... _I'm probably reading too much into it, just enjoy the moment you have with her._ When she stopped daydreaming, the first thing she saw was that Maki sat down, cross-legged. She also noticed that the white tank top Maki was wearing showed a bit of cleavage, and the view she had from above was unreal. _We probably have the same measurements, at least in breast size._ Her inner self shook her head to get rid of the X-rated thought she just had, _stop thinking that way you freaking pervert!_

"Hum," she coughed the filthy idea out as she sat down, "I noticed that you're not wearing a yukata today," she remarked, with a slightly high-pitched voice.

"Oh, I don't always wear a yukata," she said, giggling at the idea of wearing a yukata 24 hours a day. Honoka emitted a breathy laugh, knowing that it would be so fun to do it all the time that it would become illegal.

"Yeah, I had a question about that actually. Why do you wear a yukata at work?" Honoka was curious, if she hadn't been so flustered the first time they met, she would definitely have asked her at that time.

Maki pondered over the question, trying to find the right words to express her thoughts. Honoka noticed that she would drag her pinky finger around her lips whenever she was thinking hard about something. "Aesthetic," she whispered.

"Aesthetic?" She echoed.

"Oh, was I thinking out loud again? Anyway, yeah, something like that. A yukata is beautiful and nobody can deny it, so I don't think it should only be worn only on special occasions. If you want to look beautiful, you should be able to without feeling like it's a big deal. I now consider my yukatas as casual clothes, because traditional cloths" she said, finishing her explanation with a lopsided smile.

"Oh, that's interesting!" She exclaimed, stunned by this well-thought-out reasoning. It made so much sense. "Makes me think that I have issues with clothing in my workplace too."

"Do tell," she said, giving her a nod followed by a smile of approval.

"I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but I've always been told that I had to wear clothes that did not reveal much skin for health and safety reasons. I've met a lot of florists who have been told that as well, and they just obeyed. Well, I decided to wear the clothes that I want, for that I use my old school oversized apron," he explained, pointing at her apron behind the little cash desk. "It hides most of my body so people can't exactly know what I'm wearing, which enables me to wear tank tops and crop tops and shorts light t-shirts!"

"This is brilliant!" Maki exclaimed, "you're full of ressources, you're gonna get away with it all the time!"

"I know! I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking it through."

As they were about to talk some more about their respective work, they got violently interrupted by a loud noise, an unpleasant noise, the one they used to hear when they were at school. An alarm clock.

"I'm so sorry," Maki blurted instantly, taking her phone out of her blue jeans pocket and hitting the button. "I couldn't stay for a long time so I set an alarm, because I knew I would have been too distracted to check the time," she said, smiling softly as she stood up.

"That's too bad, I wish you could stay longer," she pouted. It lasted for a couple of seconds, maybe a minute. Yet, despite all of this, she breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly a few seconds later. "I had fun," she said, "I couldn't have spent a better lunch break."

"I had fun too, I'm glad I came today," she replied, not even trying to hide her contentment in her smile. She took another deep breath through her nose, whirling her hands towards it. "I can't get enough of this smell, home."

Honoka looked around and started to think about what this place brought to her, why she loved flowers so much, why she even wanted to be a florist.

"Y'know? You were right earlier, it does smell home" she breathed, "that's why I love working with flowers so much. The smell, the scent, nature, now _that_ is my kind of perfume. From the light vanilla fragrance of a chocolate cosmos to a jasmine that simply smells like calm and... beauty, at nighttime. The sense of smell triggers so many heartwarming memories, they could be from a week ago or even from your childhood, and the specific smell of this specific flower will give rise to this specific memory that you thought was long gone, forgotten. Of course, they can also bring back heart wrenching memories that you wanted to forget, but the scent will bring you to a more peaceful place, an accepting place that will make you embrace this memory, leave you with a bittersweet feeling. This sensation may not be the best, but it's still a good one, if the scent made you sad at the beginning and left you with a bittersweet accepting feeling at the end, you won."

Honoka was about to continue but finally noticed the bemused sparkling eyes contemplating her, the same eyes that had their breath taken away by the diversity and sheer number of flowers this shop contained.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Honoka stuttered, suddently blushing, "it's just, when I talk about my love for flowers, I tend to just talk and talk and talk without stopping, can't help it," she explained . She didn't necessarily want that to happen with her in the room, she was so afraid of how she might feel about this flower obsession. And yet, her bemused sparkling eyes did not fade.

"It's not a problem, please, tell me mo-"

She got cut off by the alarm clock again, she just realized that she hit the snooze button. Now, she seemed to be in a hurry, shoving her belongings in her purse.

"I'm sorry, I really have to go now," she said, hurriedly. "Bye, see you whenever," she said, as she gave one last smiling look to the passionate florist and walked out of the shop.

"Bye, Maki!" She exclaimed, as she waved her hand even though she couldn't see it anymore.

Honoka looked around her flower shop and whispered "thank you" to the flowers. Her passion managed to surprise Maki instead of frighten her. She could always count on her innocent spontaneity. As she walked to the other room, she noticed something in her hand, and she stopped. She stared at it for a few seconds, and smiled. She smiled at the untouched sandwich.

* * *

Maki was still thinking about Honoka's spontaneous speech, and as she got closer to her bookshop, she caught sight of a tall black-haired man. She recognized him a few seconds later, it was one of his customers, a high schooler.

"Shinichi-kun," she called, waving her hand at him.

"Ah, Nishikino-san," he said, as she caught up to him. "It's rare for you to be lat- Were you on a date?" He suddenly asked.

The question confused her, she almost choked on her saliva. "N-no, I wasn't. What makes you say that?" She asked, legitimately curious as to why he made this assumption.

"You don't usually wear this kind of clothes, it's not your type of "usual" clothes," he remarked, glancing at her tank top and brown boots.

"Wrong answer, you're reading too much into it. I just decided to dress casually because I was meeting a friend at her flower shop, we ate lunch together, that's all," she said confidently. "By the way, you should go to her flower shop," she suggested, "it's beautiful there, and my friend is lovely and really passionate about her job."

"So lovely and passionate that you even forgot to eat," he sassed, pointing at the bento box peeking out of her purse. "She must be very friendly, I'd looooove to meet her," he purred, looking all smug. Somehow, his smug face wasn't as appealing as Honoka's when she said "At first glance, I'm assuming you like my shop?".

She sighed, but wasn't able to hide her tiny lopsided smile and her red cheeks. "Don't act so clever, Shinichi-kun, I could shrink you with my bare hands if I wanted to," she said, looking down so he couldn't see any more of her red cheeks as she opened the door to the bookshop.

"Aye aye," he replied, still looking arrogant.

"After you."

"Thank you."

As she let him enter the bookshop, Maki gave herself permission to think one more time about her, it calmed her for some reason. After a few seconds, a deep breath and a relaxed smile, she waltzed in.

 _Honoka, it suits her. "Ka" stands for flower, obviously, it fits perfectly. "Hono" stands for flame, a passionate flame. Today, Honoka's blazing passion woke up in the most beautiful way possible. But it didn't just wake up, it spread. Maki got encircled by it, and she embraces it. Fire is catching, and she is slowly going towards it. Is she doing it willingly? She doesn't know, and it doesn't matter. Let there be fire._

* * *

 **A/N: Second chapter! I have to admit, I struggled with this one, so I don't really know what to think about it. Thank you so much for the reviews on my first chapter, I had doubts about my writing but I've had a good amount of positive reinforcement, which helped me a lot. As you probably guessed it, this is going to be a full story, and not a loose series of drabbles as I implied it last time.**

 **As I said, I did struggle with this one, so some feedback would be really appreciated :)**

 **P.S. As a reviewer mentioned it, Maki is OOC. I'm guessing she wasn't the only to notice it. Don't worry, there's a reason as to why she is like that and it will be addressed in a later chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

_It's my turn to go and see her now_ , Honoka thought. A few days had passed after their last encounter in her flower shop. The last few days were quite busy in the shop and with all the paper work she had to do and the preparations for the deliveries that she barely had time for herself during lunch break, which meant that she hadn't found the time to go and meet Maki over a lunch that was never going to be consumed. Well, she could have gone to the library the day after their last meeting, it was not a busy day so she had some time on her hands, but she decided not to go because she didn't want come off as clingy. Needless to say she regretted it when a whole week went by without getting to see her.

No matter how much she loved working in her shop, talking to her clients, recommending the most suitable set of flowers depending on what the client needed them for, and witnessing her customers' blissful faces as they full on sniff a bouquet of roses, Honoka wasn't too sad about the lack of clients today. The weather was nice, the sun was out and people were given the present of a polluted yet fresh little breeze. Perfect weather to stay indoors and enjoy Maki's presence.

After her last small round of customers before lunch break, even though it was a "chill day", Honoka did not wait five or ten minutes in case another client showed up and instead took off her double-sided apron, carelessly threw it on the little cash desk, reached for the "Closed (you can still admire the flowers though, it's also what they're for)" sign on the shelf, hung it on the glass door and headed out.

Honoka was in a good mood, thrilled to finally be able to see her again after a week. Now that she thought about it though, a week didn't seem like much, but somehow, it did with her. She missed her even though they only met twice, during lunch break, in their respective workplace. She also wondered why she hadn't offered Maki her phone number, she felt like they had already reached the point in their relationship where calling and texting were options they deserved to have. Obtaining her phone number also meant that they could text or call each other to meet somewhere other than the bookstore or the flower shop, this thought made her wriggle of impatience.

After getting past the popular hairdresser and the toy shop on her street, Honoka turned right and nyoomed. It was one of her little quirks, sometimes when she changed direction she would whisper "nyoom!", it made her smile every single time, and that was also a way to give her some confidence because "if you can say that out loud, you can do anything".

She was two minutes away from the bookshop when she recognized the figure of someone familiar walking in her direction, clothed in a pair of blue skinny jeans and a plain white t-shirt, her simple outfit embraced her curves in the most natural way, nothing looked forced. The little breeze going against her made it so that Honoka thought her crimson hair floated on their own at each side of her face, as if pulled by strings from the sky. She could never get enough of this view.

"Ah, Honoka!" Maki called out, waking her up from the dreamy sight she imagined for herself. "I was just on my way to see you," she pointed out, eyes wide and mouth semi-open.

"No way!" Honoka blurted as she caught up to her, " _I_ was on my way to see you, it was my turn after all," she said.

They both stayed in the middle of the sidewalk staring at each other for a few seconds as passersby did the thing they were best at – passing by and giving weird and annoyed looks as they went around them. After a few seconds, Honoka tilted her head to the side and blinked, a simple and innocent gesture that made Maki chuckle, which obviously made Honoka laugh in response. Chain reactions, they happen more with some people than others, and they were each other's "some people". They calmed down and leaned back on a wall so they didn't bother the pedestrians anymore by standing in the middle.

"So, where are we going now?" Honoka asked.

"Mmmh, let me see..." Maki started, pondering over the question. "Well, you did walk more than I did, so it's not like we're going to go back to your flower shop when we can clearly see that my bookshop is closer," she stated. "Besides," she added, lifting her forefinger the way a calligrapher would with their feather quill pen as they made the first bottom curve of the letter M, "you did say it was your turn."

"Fine by me," she agreed.

They both nodded and walked towards the bookshop. For a tiny moment, no one said anything, they were silent, and it did not really bother. They were already comfortable with each other's silence.

"You know?" Honoka broke the silence, "You didn't have to make such a big deal out it," she said, turning her face away from her and making it obvious that she was laughing by putting a hand to her mouth.

"Eh?"

"Besides," she repeated, with an exaggerated mimic of the finger motion she did earlier, "you did say it was your turn."

"Oh my God!" She blurted, faking being outraged by this impersonation, "I didn't say it with such a haughty voice, you almost sounded like a duck there," she exclaimed, yet unable to withhold her high-pitched laugh.

"Well, that was exactly how you sounded," she walked faster and stopped in front of her, "Milady," she said, as she bowed before her. As Honoka had her head facing down, Maki grabbed the opportunity and gave her a nice flick on her forehead. An amused "Ouch" was heard.

"You earned that," Maki snorted.

Honoka just went back to her side and gave her a friendly push on the shoulder with her own. They kept on walking and laughing for ten more seconds before they reached the bookstore. Maki reached in her purse and took her key ring on which were 3 keys and what looked like a smiley face pendant. She used the key that was in the middle and turned it twice in the lock to open the door.

"After you... servant," Maki joked.

"Oh, my Queen, what an honour!" She rejoiced, skipping in the bookstore. Maki snorted and followed after closing the door behind her.

At her own surprise, Honoka realized that she missed this place, even though she had only been there once. She thought it was probably because of this, the thrill she felt the first time she met her was similar to that of a new amusement park, it had been scary, she had been nervous, there were moments where she thought she couldn't breathe, but she would lie if she ever said she didn't want another ride.

"Make yourself comfortable," Maki suggested, dropping her purse on the chair behind the cash desk.

Honoka did as she was told and hopped on the cash desk. The difference between her first time there and now was baffling, she had gained so much confidence, she wasn't all that anxious anymore, after all, Maki was her friend now. The fact that she was gorgeous was an added bonus she did not complain about. Well, she was his friend, but she still had this attraction/feelings thing to figure out. _Everything has its time_ , Honoka thought, and now was their time.

"Since we obviously won't eat, I supposed it would be good to drink at least, so I bought some orange juice," she said, as she put two little juice boxes on the cash desk.

Honoka liked that Maki acknowledged the fact that they never ate once when they were together, and it didn't bother her, she just accepted it. Some of her old friends would tell her to eat even when she wasn't hungry. Actually, Honoka loved to eat, but for some reason, not eating with Maki by her side was more than manageable. With her, time flew by in the blink of an eye, she didn't have the time to worry about the needs of her stomach.

Maki hopped on the cash desk as well and they both pierced their juice box with the straw that was attached to it. They sat next to each other and proceeded to sip on their orange juice. It tasted like orange juice, which she guessed was the whole point of the thing, it tasting like orange juice.

Honoka suddenly decided to enjoy some sightseeing, indoors, sitting on a cash desk. She looked around the whole shop and was still surprised by the number of shelves it contained. She suddenly remembered the rant she had done at the flower shop, about how passionate she got when she talked about flowers and the way it makes people feel when they smell them. She wondered if those books were ways for Maki to feel home too, even though she felt like it was hardly possible. They were just books after all, and it's not like she had read all of them anyway.

"Remember last week?" Honoka asked, with the straw tickling her lips, "you told me that my flower shop smelled like home, then you corrected yourself and said that it smelled home. Period. I wanted to ask, do you feel the same way about your bookshop?"

Maki clearly didn't expect to be asked this kind of question. She stopped sipping on her orange juice, put it down on the cash desk and started to think. Honoka understood that she needed to concentrate, so she gave her some time and didn't say a word, she wasn't in a hurry, she was willing to give her all the time in the world – well, all the time in the world before the end of lunch break.

"Mmmh, I don't think I would use the word "home", I would say... safe haven," she answered, with a sigh of relief at the last two words.

"Safe haven?" Honoka echoed.

"See? This bookshop contains knowledge, sure, this knowledge is minimal compared to all of the knowledge this world... no, compared to all of the knowledge this _universe_ has to offer, but some of it is still here," she said, opening her arms to the general direction of the bookshelves. "I feel safe with knowledge, I feel like I could do anything, save everyone, I feel at ease, at peace with myself. They say "food for thoughts", but nah-uh, not for me, I prefer to say that learning is food for my soul. Learning nourishes my soul, it cleanses it even," she confirmed. "But it's not just about knowledge," she quickly resumed, "it's also about storytelling. Humanity _needs_ stories, or else it would never have been able to live this long. We can learn from our mistakes thanks to the stories that are being passed on everyday, whether they be by books, news TV, movies, TV shows, etc, thanks to those we can learn about new concepts and values. Storytelling is important, but _good_ storytelling is vital. Books give you the power to be anywhere in time and space while still being in your bedroom in pajamas. Also..."

It was like a body swap, last week, Maki was the one staring at Honoka with bemused sparkling eyes, but now it was Honoka's turn to be blown away by Maki's passion. If Honoka's passion was burning, Maki's was refreshing. The words escaping from her mouth felt like a small yet powerful breeze in Honoka's soul, opening windows she never thought existed before. Maki, however, could not see what was going on in Honoka's mind, and couldn't look at her in the eye, she seemed embarrassed by how long she went on her rant about her love of books, she had just asked a yes/no question after all.

"Hey, Maki," Honoka said in a low voice, breaking the fifteen seconds of silence, "you really are something!"

"Eh?"

"Yes! This whole talk about how much you love books, it really moved me. This kind of thing always moves me to be honest. When someone talks about their passion, something or someone that they love, they have those shiny eyes and those blissful sighs... I wish I could listen to you for days on end."

This last part made both of them blush, Maki didn't think her speech would provoke such a reaction, and Honoka could not believe she had just said that with a straight face.

"Th-Thank you," Maki stuttered, "I'm really glad to know that my passion got to you as well," she whispered, so low that Honoka could not quite make out what she said.

"Eh? What-"

"You know?" Maki interrupted, without necessarily wanting to cut her off, "there's something else that might speak to you even more," she said, slightly tilting her head to the side with a soft smile.

"Oh?"

"Yes, just give me a second." She hopped down the cash desk and lost herself behind the bookshelves. Honoka wondered what she was up to, but was excited to know that she had something else up her sleeve. When Maki was made herself visible again, she was smiling and had an old-looking book in her hands. She stood in front of Honoka who was still on the cash desk and handed the book to her.

"Here, now, I want you to bring this book close to your nose and flip through the pages."

Honoka opened her eyes wide in shock, "You want me to... smell it?"

"No, of course not," Maki snorted, "I want you to _sniff_ it," she added, emphasizing on the sniffing part.

Honoka immediately laughed at that, "Are you kidding?"

"Nope," she answered, smiling. "Your Queen gave you an order, do as you are told," she said, with a haughty duck-sounding voice.

"Oh, if my Queen says so, I can't refuse," she answered, giggling at the thought of her being a servant and Maki being a queen, it would be a fun alternate universe.

Honoka did as she was told, she brought the book up to her nose, flipped quickly through the pages and took a deep and long silent breath through her nose. She flipped through every single one of them and sighed in relief when she was done, even though it sounded exactly like a moan.

"Wow, okay, I had never done that before!" Honoka blurted. "It smells like... eh?"

"You can't pinpoint it, right?" Maki rhetorically asked.

"Hum, it does smell good, I love the smell but..."

"You have a hard time finding the words to describe it," she finished. "It's okay, it happens a lot, I couldn't exactly describe it the first time I sniffed a book too. Actually, I don't even think I could objectively describe it now, that's why I like to use metaphors. There are things you just can't talk about directly, so you try to talk about those things symbolically, with metaphors, that way, instead of being abstract, those things become more powerful and somehow more observable," she explained. "You did it yourself last time, maybe without even being aware of it when you said that a jasmine smelled like calm and beauty at nighttime."

 _Oh, she remembered that._

"To me," Maki continued, "an old book smells musty – the good kind – with a smell of yellowing and creaking pages, stories growing old but never dying, the scent of the days of yore. New books have this smell of new paper and ink, fresh, refined plastic fragrance, sign of a book that hasn't been touched, unturned, a virgin just waiting to be felt, fingered and flipped over. Books have the aroma of untold stories, disclosed secrets, and mystery."

The flow of words coming out of her mouth felt like the wind blowing through the leaves of the tallest trees, music to her ears. She was mesmerized. She never thought books could be described this way, she never thought _anything_ could be described this way. So metaphorical, so lyrical... so sensual.

Maki woke up from her trance and realized once again that she may have gone on another rant about books. She blinked a few times and looked at the agape Honoka.

"Sorry about that," Maki sighed, "I just keep on talking about books and I don't even give you the time to let you speak," she said, feeling guilty.

"No," she whispered, "it's not that, it's not that you don't give me... time?... Time!" she blurted, turning around to look up at the clock behind her, "Time! I have to go!"She exclaimed, looking panicked as she hopped down the cash desk.

"What? Already!? I feel like it's only been ten minutes!" She exclaimed, looking offended by time itself.

"I know," she said, dragging the "ow" sound the same way she did with her feet leading her to the door.

"Wait, at least let me go with you, I'm opening the bookshop a bit later today so I have some time."

"You don't have to d-"

"I want to," she interrupted, " I know I don't have to but I want to," she said, smiling.

Honoka smiled back, "Thank you."

Maki took her purse and headed out of the bookshop with Honoka, making sure she closed the door behind her. As always, they walked side by side, but this time they appeared to be a little closer than usual.

"Sorry again, Honoka, for ranting earlier. Twice. I just can't stop talking when it comes to books and knowledge and stories, etc... I should have controlled myself."

Honoka frowned, "Eh? What are you talking about?" She asked. "I told you already, I loved everything you said, I love listening to people talking about their passion, it's a turn o- I love it! I love it when people do that!" She exclaimed, wiping a sweat off her forehead.

"Are you sure?" She asked, worried.

"Of course I am," she asserted, "and it also helps to know that you too go on speeches about your passion, that way I don't have to feel bad when I do it," she added.

Maki sighed in relief, "Oh, good then."

"By the way, it has nothing to do with what we're talking about but, can I give you my phone number?" She asked, trying to sound as confident as possible, task that happened to be impossible since she couldn't directly look at her. "Like, we could tell each other when or where we're meeting, who comes to whom, that way we would avoid what happened earlier when we both went out to go to the other's meeting point," she explained.

"Oh, good thinking, Honoka, didn't think about that," she said, unable to repress the big smile on her face.

Honoka said her phone number out loud and Maki typed it on her phone. Honoka left her phone in the shop and had forgotten her purse so she couldn't type or write Maki's phone number anywhere, she would have to wait for Maki to contact her.

In no time, they were in front of the flower shop.

"Once again, it was really nice to see you," Honoka said.

"Same here," Maki replied, "I'm glad you came."

They both looked and smiled at each other, waiting for the other to say goodbye first.

"Well, goodbye then," Maki said, knowing that Honoka had to open her shop soon.

"See you," Honoka waved before walking in her shop, and as she closed the door, she heard "I'll call you." That made her smile.

Honoka took the sign indicating that the shop was closed off the glass door and put in on a shelf behind the cash desk. She put on her double-sided apron and got to ready to welcome her clients. Before the first early client walked in, Honoka giggled because of two things, the fact that Maki had her phone number, and the fact that Maki could also mean "book" in Japanese.

The glass door opened.

"Welcome!"

* * *

Maki was ecstatic as she went back to her bookshop, she had Honoka's phone number and she was delighted to know that her love for books wasn't problematic. Not that she would have changed it if it happened to be a problem for Honoka, but she was glad she embraced and accepted it. She was happy.

However, when she turned right, her mood violently changed. Her eyes grew wider and the heavy breathing started. Her fingers tensed and she started to ransack her purse. She digged out a pen and a notebook, in which she ripped out a post-it note. Her hands were shivering as she scribbled on it using the notebook as a support. When she was done writing, she shoved her pen and notebook in her purse and smacked the post-it note on the windshield of the car that triggered her reaction. This action calmed her down a bit, but she was still in a state of shock nonetheless.

"Hey! What did you just do to my car?" A middle-aged man shouted from across the street.

Maki ignored him and decided to walk away. The man carelessly crossed the street to check if his car had any damage. He noticed the post-it note on his car and read it.

"Miss!" He blurted.

Maki stopped.

"I'm sorry, thank you for pointing this out, I'll fix that immediately," the man shouted, as he proceeded to execute the traditional Japanese bow, an apologetic gesture.

Maki nodded and continued to walk to her bookshop. "Thank you," she whispered, with a tear dripping down her face.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that took longer than I expected, sorry about that. It's the chapter I had the most fun writing so far, so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please review, I'd love to know what you thought about it! :)**


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